“Every time when I make a mistake in class, educators would say, you babymama you must keep quiet:” Challenges confronting teenage mothers when re-engaging with secondary school education in a Johannesburg secondary school, South Africa

ABSTRACT

In many societies, a girl child is often the one who bears the brunt of unplanned pregnancy. In some instances the pregnancy affects their education, since a decision has to be made on whether or not to continue schooling during and after the pregnancy. This study explored the challenges confronting teenage mothers when they reengaged with secondary school education post-pregnancy in Johannesburg. Qualitative interviews were used to collect data from the teen mothers. Data collected was analyzed using thematic analysis methods. Key findings indicated that some educators were hostile toward the teenage mothers, and treated them differently. This was due to the poor comprehension of applicable policies meant to protect the education interest of pregnant learners and teenage mothers in schools. Recommendations are made for the education authorities to ensure that relevant policies are followed by educators when confronted with learner pregnancy related complication.

KEYWORDS:

• Challenges
• teenage mothers
• teenage motherhood
• re-engagement with education
• secondary school
• Johannesburg
• South Africa

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA). CARTA is jointly led by the African Population and Health Research Center and the University of the Witwatersrand and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York [Grant No–B 8606.R02]; Sida [Grant No:54100113]; the DELTAS Africa Initiative [Grant No: 107768/Z/15/Z] and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). The DELTAS Africa Initiative is an independent funding scheme of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS)’s Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) and supported by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency) with funding from the Wellcome Trust (UK) and the UK government. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the Fellow.The support of the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in the Republic of South Africa towards this research is also acknowledged. However, opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the researchers and not to be attributed to the CoE in Human Development.